FORTEN BLACK FOUNDING FATHER

JAMES FORTEN BLACK FOUNDING FATHER OF THE UNITED STATES James Forten, who was born free, was certainly among our black founding fathers: he fought as a sailor in the American Revolution at age 14; was captured on his second voyage by British and presumed dead . He escaped imprisonment, worked at shipyards in England; experimenting with sails. Returning to America , he worked in a sailors’ loft that he later purchased. Thirty men worked for him of both races. He became very rich. He used his riches to buy land and houses in Philadelphia. He funded William Lloyd Garrison’s “Liberator;” funded the “Underground Railroad” of William Still; co-founded the Free African Society (precursor of the AME Church ) with Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. He also funded schools for blacks and vigorously supported women rights work with his daughters, who married the wealthy South Carolina Robert and James Purvis brothers and continued in their father’s way.  https://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-28C